Covenant
by TheNewIdea
Summary: Following the story of Arbiter and Tanner, a Grunt doctor, as they relive the events of the War through their own experiences and come home to political unrest, racial tension, the threat of Great Journey believers and the start of another war. Rated T for violence, political drama, prejudice, angst, black comedy and character death.
1. Chapter 1

2564

The Arbiter stared at the Monument of Heroes, forever erected those who had died in the Human-Covenant War in the memories of those who had survived and those who would come after them. Sighing, Arbiter looked around; he had searched every known human colony in the galaxy, only to come back here, with nothing. He had gone to every military base, every possible bastion of human refugee, only to find them all completely empty. Commander Laskey, the leader of the Infinity, was nowhere to be found. Arbiter knew that as far as humanity went, it was extinct, the War had seen to that.

The Master Chief, the reason that the War turned on its head and in no small part on the Arbiter, died at the hands of his new AI, Victor Prime. Prime, who vied for control of Chief, had attempted to erase his mind, essentially making Chief nothing more than a zombie for Prime's no so benevolent purposes. This is exactly what happened. It was Prime's takeover of Chief that sounded the death knell for the human race. Prime began killing mercilessly, destroying entire cities with the simple wave of Chief's trigger finger. In a desperate attempt to stop him, The Arbiter was called in. Ultimately, it came down to a final showdown on Reach, where this story began, with Arbiter being the victor. In his dying moments, the Chief regaining control, who looked up at his friend, reached up for his helmet and removed it.

Underneath, the Chief was just a normal man. There was nothing special about him. The thing that captivated Arbiter the most though, were his eyes. He could see the pain, the sadness, the weight of war after war bearing down and getting no rest, no peace of mind. Arbiter could see the loss, the loneliness that was stricken all over his face, but most prominent in the eyes. The loss of a family that he never had, the loss of Cortana, the one person that John ever came close to actually loving and the loss of his humanity as a result of the Spartan program.

Arbiter hung his head in pity and gently put Chief's helmet back on him. "I'm sorry John" he said to no one in particular, "I wish that things could've been different. I wish that you were never a Spartan, maybe then you could have the life that you always wanted the life that I always wanted...But war has a funny way of changing people. We become monsters, we forget who we are. You didn't think of us having families, having lives outside of war. You saw us only as the enemy, as the thing that needed to be destroyed for the sake of humanity." Arbiter laid down Chief's head in the soft grass and stood up, heading towards his ship. "We too saw the humans in the same way" Arbiter continued, "for if we didn't we wouldn't be able to go through with it, we wouldn't have committed the atrocities that the War had brought down upon the humans." Arbiter reached his ship and entered it. He sat in the pilot's chair and began takeoff, "That is why in many ways we are the same. That is why I am glad that the war is over. It brought out the worst in all of us, humans and Covenant alike, for there were many good, honest, hardworking people who died on both sides, doing nothing more than what they thought was right. Now that war is over, now there is only peace."

Arbiter sighed once again, the memory of John's final moments running through his head. To his right a Grunt appeared by the name of Tanner. Tanner was a doctor and next to Doctor Halsey was the smartest being in the entire galaxy. "What news?" Arbiter asked, noticing that the Grunt was waiting for something, "No news sir" Tanner began, "just doing my rounds, you're the only one I've seen today." Arbiter rolled his eyes, "Can we at least wait until we get on the ship Tanner? You know how much I hate field examinations." Tanner smiled and nodded, "Of course sir. Please follow me." Arbiter did as he was instructed and followed Tanner back to the ship and into the doctor's quarters.

Tanner's office was big, compared to the other rooms on the ship, with four operating tables, that on more than one occasion served as autopsy tables, an X-ray machine, a biochemical infusion chamber, a Spartan training center and a medical kiosk, it was a wonder that Tanner hadn't gone mad from trying to run the thing all by himself.

Arbiter complied to the slight humiliation of lying on one of the tables while Tanner examined almost every part of his body using a Guilty Spark 435, a prototype twin of 343, suited and programmed specifically for medical purposes with a mind that could only be used for certain tasks, to prevent another incident of 343. When 435 was done, Tanner began the questioning, "Do you have any health concerns I should be aware of?" he asked. Arbiter huffed in annoyance, "Does having massive headaches from answering stupid pointless questions count as a health concern?" Tanner laughed, "No it does not. I say again, any health concerns?" Arbiter shook his head no in response. Tanner wrote down the information on a small clipboard and continued, "Have you had any suicidal thoughts, tendencies, out of body experiences, unusual cravings of food or anything that might suggest that you are mentally incapable within the past five years?" Arbiter sat up, tired of Tanner's questions that served absolutely no purpose, "No. A thousand times no!" Arbiter moved towards the door, "Now if you don't mind Doctor, I have a ship to run. Go do, whatever the hell it is that you do besides annoying me, before I abandon you here and leave you to rot you weird, little freak!"

As soon as Arbiter left, Tanner walked over to his desk and opened the drawer. Looking inside Tanner found a plasma pistol and an empty holographic note, too many times had he thought about suicide. Tanner had virtually no respect, form others and himself, he may have been the smartest guy in any room but that only seemed to isolate him further. If anything, the one thing that Tanner wanted to do was help, for he too had seen the horrors of the War, but on an entirely different end.


	2. Chapter 2

2552- The First Halo Ring, Installation 05

Tanner was one of the many who escaped with his life on the Halo ring. Before its destruction and the arrival of the Flood, Tanner was nothing more than a field medic. When Master Chief first landed on Halo, Tanner was ordered to stay hidden by his superior, Chronis, an Elite General, because of his vast knowledge of medical training that would undoubtedly be needed in the aftermath...

Tanner followed orders for a total of five minutes, for once the bullets started flying and the bodies of his friends lay in the grass, Tanner immediately began running across the field, directly in the line of fire. It was then that he saw him, the Master Chief. Tanner bravely accepted death, "Please" he said, "get it over with quickly. I don't want it to hurt." Chief was just about to fire, thinking that he was nothing more than a brainless Grunt, when suddenly Cortana butted in, "Don't kill him Chief" she replied, "he's different. Not like the others." Tanner could hear this and immediately got on the defensive, "Excuse me" he began, "but these Grunts you see around you" he gestured to the amount of dead bodies, most of them were Grunts, "they were my brothers. My family and they were among the kindest and bravest Grunts that I've ever known. To say that I am not like them is both an insult to them and me. So if you're going to kill me, kill me. I will gladly take death with open arms, knowing that I will be surrounded by friends. That's enough for me to go quietly."

At this Chief only shrugged and aimed at Tanner, just as he was about to fire Cortana got in the way again, "Chief. Don't do this, he's just a Grunt!" Chief huffed, "Yeah, a Grunt with a brain. And people with brains end up dead, too smart for their own good, might as well put him out of his misery." Cortana shocked him but this did nothing. Chief gently put pressure on the trigger, as the bullets rained down, Chronis jumped in front of Tanner, shielding Tanner from the gunfire but also killing him instantly. Tanner looked on in horror at Chronis' body and then at Chief, "You bastard! You sick bastard! That was my friend you asshole." Chief said nothing and prepared himself for an attack, but Tanner just stood there, helplessly and pointlessly tending to Chronis' wounds. "Why are you not attacking me?" Chief asked, extremely confused as to what was happening. "What's the point?" Tanner answered, "If I do you'd only kill me anyway...Hell, I might as well just save you the trouble and commit suicide right now." Tanner pulled out a plasma grenade and activated, "You'd best go" Tanner concluded, "I was born to die alone." Chief in response knocked the plasma grenade out of Tanner's hands and threw it at a distant patrol of Jackals, who blew up immediately upon contact with the grenade. "No one was born to die alone" Chief answered, "now get out of here before the Marines show up."

Tanner nodded, following Chief's instructions and made his way to the Cartographer, the only safe place on the ring. It was during this time that Tanner first came in contact with the Arbiter, who at that time was commander of an entire Covenant fleet. But Tanner had no time for making friends, for the amount of wounded that was brought to the Cartographer was immense, filling up the beach by the hundreds with several Covenant waiting to be healed.

An Elite by the name of Falk had his entire right arm completely severed off, "Grunt!" he cried towards Tanner as he bled on the ground in agony, "Save me...please!" At that moment, Tanner was working on a Jackal, who had been partially cut in two by an accident thrust of an energy sword originally intended for a human solider, "Be right with you!" Tanner called out, as he pulled out 435, who gently sew the Jackal back together. Tanner meanwhile pulled out a high powered precession laser and began cutting off the Jackal's armor, in order to better reach the skin and bone. Tanner pulled out a small vial of blue liquid and forced it down the Jackal's throat, "This will dull the pain" he said at a whisper, "just do me a favor and breathe...slowly. Start counting, 1...2...3..." the Jackal nodded in response and began to slowly count to himself, meanwhile Falk screamed once more in pain. Tanner, noticing that 435 was done with his work on the Jackal, turned to him, "435. Go see to Falk. Heal him as best you can." 435 beeped in response and hovered over to Falk, leaving Tanner alone with the Jackal.

Tanner sighed, now it was time for the hard part. Pulling out a plasma pistol, a regeneration ray and a notepad, the Grunt began the surgical procedures. Picking up the regeneration ray, Tanner aimed it at the Jackal and fired, causing the Jackal to scream and wriggle in agony and misery. Through the ray's scope, Tanner could see that the Jackal's bone were now most attached, but the organs were still damaged, most of them beyond repair. Tanner looked at him, a single tear was in his eye, "I'm sorry friend" he said, "There's nothing I can do." The Jackal sighed reluctantly and stared at Tanner, "Tell them I died well" he said, "tell them that I died fighting the Demon." Tanner shook his head, "I will tell them that you took on a whole army of Demons, single handedly." The Jackal smiled and lifted his hand, grasping Tanner's arm, "Thank you Doctor, for being here." Tanner moved his hand over the Jackal's eyes, closing them, "Go now" Tanner exclaimed, "Leave this world with no regrets." The Jackal laughed at this thought, took his final breath and died.

Falk meanwhile, continued to scream in pain. Tanner made his way over, only to be met with a slap to the face by Falk, "What the hell took you so long?" Falk hissed, "My arm is gone and you're over there giving last rites to a lowlife Jackal?" Tanner rolled his eyes and fired the regenerator ray at Falk's arm, which immediately grew back, "His need was greater than yours Falk" Tanner answered. Falk couldn't believe what he was hearing, "Are you serious?" he shouted, "His need was greater than mine? I'm an Elite, I have rank over everyone on this beach. You should've tended to my needs first; it's called chain of command." Tanner laughed as he walked away. "Good luck with that arm" Tanner replied, " Cause it's still broken asshole." Falk stared at him, even in more disbelief than before, "Where are you going?" he cried, "Get back here you crazy motherfucking doctor!"

Chief arrived two days later, searching for the Cartographer. By this point, Arbiter had already returned to his ship and was trying to organize his military campaign there, but had obviously failed at executing it. Tanner, once again, was caught in the crossfire. Taking cover behind a large rock, Tanner tried to the best of his abilities to stay out of Chief's way for fear of him forgetting the meeting in the canyon. At the moment however, Tanner's main concern was with the Marines who accompanied him and not actually Chief himself.

The Elites backed up by several Jackals and a handful of Grunts charged against the Marines at full force. They answered with a force of their own, creating a maelstrom of gunfire, violence and destruction. As the body count grew on the Covenant side, Tanner began to fear for his life, but he remained behind his rock and simply waited for his discovery...

When the battle was over, Tanner saw that all of the Elites, including Falk were lying dead in the sand. However, he could still hear the cries of the wounded, but he didn't recognize them. Peering out from the rock in curiosity, Tanner found the source of the cries to be a wounded Marine, who was bleeding in the sand and near death. Tanner, feeling an obligation to life and his duty as a doctor, walked over to him, thinking that the best thing he could do would be to at least make his final moments less painful.

The Marine saw Tanner and reached for his sidearm, trying to fire it but finding that it was waterlogged. As Tanner approached, the Marine began to fear for his life, now quivering in fear and the pain from his wounds. "P-p-please" he cried, "don't kill me! I've got family back home. A wife and kids...don't leave them without a father, please I beg you!" Tanner pulled out his bag and with it 435. "Guilty Spark" Tanner began, "see to his wounds." 435 complied and began the slow process of healing, Tanner meanwhile, pulled out his precision laser and began the same procedure that he used with the Jackal. The Marine stared at Tanner with confusion, especially when the Grunt pulled out the green vial and put it in his hand, "What's this for?" he asked. Tanner smiled and answered him, "It'll help dull the pain, friend. Drink it." The Marine looked at the vial hesitantly, "Who are you?" he pressed. "Does it matter?" Tanner answered, "I'm saving your life. Shouldn't that be all you need to know?" The Marine huffed, "Why are you saving me? Why not just kill me right now?" Tanner stopped working and leaned in, "Because" the Grunt replied, "I'm not that kind of person. I don't kill things, I save them. I'm a doctor, it's what I do." The Marine, still not understanding continued, "But why? I'm a Human and you're a Covenant. Why go through the trouble?" Tanner sighed, getting slightly annoyed and continued his work, "Just because I'm told something is right, doesn't mean that it is."

The Marine finally understood, just as he was about to speak further, a sniper bolt went through his head, barely missing Tanner by mere centimeters. The shot came from a misfire from a Jackal on a high ledge, which was instantly killed with return fire from a nearby Marine. Tanner sighed as he looked at the Marine whose life he had almost saved. Tanner closed the Marine's eyes and gave him his rites, "Go now and leave this world with no regrets."

Just as the Marines were about to overrun the area, Tanner fled on the last Covenant transport ship out, when he was alone in his quarters, the doctor cried his eyes out.


End file.
